Across the World in 17 hours

Changi to Dubai to Hamburg.
Our journey started in Changi Airport where a mass of councillors were sending off the many Councillors on our trip as well as filming for something which I think I'm not allowed to betray yet.
Finally got to know my group and we ventured around the departure hall as any group would. Found out my group had 3 people in the same class so me and Chan Qy were a bit extra. Then again, looking at the number of HP and Council participants, we were a minority anyway.

When we were on the plane Flo (or was it YuQing) took me black notebook (my birthday gift from 12S06E) and read it, her conclusion being that I was a very sad person. Naise. Me, Martha and Theo decided to watch Tree of Life (Cannes Film Festival Winner) at the same time. And omg its really really siao. The show really throws you into the deep end of sensory and existentialism. I don't want to go into the details of the show, rather I will talk about the reactions. Mostly Theo falling asleep halfway, and me and Martha glancing each other time to time just to express our exasperation at the show. It was like whuuttttt. I sort of got the point but it felt like 5 hours rather than 1 hour and a half. Maybe should have tried Contagion instead hmm.

I was trying my best to adapt to German time by then so at one point while everyone was sleeping I decided to try a poem. Meh later.

At Dubai our group was one of the groups that managed to stay together (probably the last time though xD) We followed Naishad who preached free food at the food court but was utterly devastated to find it under renovation. So we went to Macs instead (surprise surprise)

That was the view at Macs (its a HDR image)

Other than that Dubai was pretty uneventful. Finally sat of the plane to Germany.

Upon touch down we met our tour leader Elaine, an ex-Rafflesian who took last year's GCEP group as well as various other RJC groups like the Raffles Middle East Program.









They were shocked, a little mocking that I wore thermal but woe to them when they stepped out of the airport and realized it was freaking cold. Never mind that, here's the view of the airport!

Also a HDR (Morning Rises and Dawn Sets are really difficult to take without bracketing OK?) Visited the RutHaus, the office building (with gothic architecture) of the local Town Council. But meh I'm not the story telling type, more the blog for thoughts and feelings type.

The christmas spirit sunk in a little more with the huge christmas market just outside the ruthaus where I had a go at the local Wurst (sausages), which btw.... IS AWESOME. At night we visited the ongoing re vitalization of an old port in Hamburg which alluded a little to the Marina Bay area. The main difference was civic engagement in Germany which was at epic proportions with Architecture Competitions (winner gets his design built which can amount to Billions) and private developers given tours of the area to help build up this new portion. Sounds awesome right? Trouble is, Marina Bay took 3 years and how long will these plans take? A whopping 20 years. Bitch.

Hotel was awesome and we somehow landed the largest room. Wooo Blumz and me roomies awesomeeee.

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Airplane Mode
Read, watch, glimpse, listen
Above the clouds faces glisten
Made of steel and Aluminum
Filled with thoughts and feelings
More than a million

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Checking back on my book, I realized I wrote something about prom cup that I didn't post. To hell with it. One noteworthy thing though, my elder brother was a debator. (But not me)

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Behind on:
Blog Posts
Homework
Photo Editing and Uploading
Card Writing
Packing for next trip
Planning for next year events

So I decided to play Civilization. Genius.

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ARGH I WANT TO POST THE WHOLE MYLO XYLOTO ALBUM HERE ITS SO DAM BOOMZ AHHHHH.
And the fact that some songs continue from the last in terms of pitch and transition DAMIT. HOW TO POST?
So instead. I will self-troll and post something not from that album because any less than the whole album is a crime. (Which I have already committed with two songs from the album I posted last time)
Oh Noezz I'm a fanboyyy

Prom Cup

AHA. Fooled ya. No post about Germany yet. This happened directly before the trip... so didn't have time to post.

This is related to the trip though, because many debators were on the trip as well. (Prom Cup is an International Debating Competition organized by my school) And was the topic of one of our dinner conversations! (Which became quite heated) I should disclaimer that I post because I feel strongly about topics (usually), and it is a disgrace but I am no stranger to being judge-mental, one should read with a pinch of salt at my so called 'observations'.

As TED talks speaker Chimamanda Adichie put it, there is always a danger of having a 'single story'. An impression of something based on just a few stories that corroborate. Perhaps instead of pushing aside evidence that does not coincide as being inconsistent, we need to hunger for it to make a wholesome impression. I think that Raffles Debate is one of those CCAs one has to experience to get one side of Raffles to make the picture, just a little bit more complete.

Wow I sure as hell thought I had an awful lot more to say (OH NO IM BECOMING RIFDI), but it seems I've exhausted this thought pattern to that particular conversation in Germany. Well suffice to say that the debators are exceptionally brilliant, ambitious, and convicted, and sometimes the trouble lies in overdoing any of them, or not drawing the line between debates and routine conversations. I remember one of them saying he was 'an arrogant, elitist, bastard' and he doesn't care about it. Pity that I think, that really he does, but he's too scared to say it. A lot going in my head right now.

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Sometimes we scoff at, we sneer at, we judge people who laugh, make a joke, maybe giggle, or shout and talk loudly during a solemn event, maybe a funeral, maybe at a war memorial site. Maybe its just their way of coping, maybe the dead want the living to be happy and laugh, maybe the passed would have laughed too.

Is being happy after a depressing or traumatic event being strong or being pretentious?

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There is a very curious impression I make on people. The top 3 misconceptions being
1. I'm from RI Sec
2. I'm from the Humanities Program
3. I'm in council/chorale

Is that good or bad?

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Read this on my friend's tumblr

"I could have kissed you

under cherry blossoms,

pale petals drifting down

like the trees wanted to

pretend they could be

snowclouds.

I could have kissed you

in the rain, drenched to

our bones and not even

caring that the skies

opened up above us

and tried to wash us out.

I could have kissed you

in a clearing in the most 

secluded woods, with

just the sound of wind

rustling through the leaves

and a few voyeuristic

finches peeping at us.

Instead, I kissed you

in a parking lot of a

Waffles House, just shy

of 2 a.m in the middle

of a hectic week, with

our waitress grinning

at us from the other

side of the window.

because honestly,

how could I not?"

~Location, Location, Location

So much to say, no time to play, give me a few days

I'm back from Deutschland